News, Views and Analysis

Black Watch

Besides designating the entire “outer zone” of the G20 perimeter as subject to that notoriously misrepresented Ontario Public Works Protection Act, the uniforms were told to be on the lookout for specific threats, including young people, heavy knapsacks, emergency medical kits and—bagpipes.

The instructions were clear:

Musicians can “create sudden drives of energy and joy within the [Black] Bloc,” which gives a “message of power to the enemy in battle….Black Bloc bagpipe players could bring immense joy to many, as does radical cheerleading to others.”

No doubt the pipers in question hid the instruments in their knapsacks and simply melted into the crowds, for no pipes were confiscated. Police later displayed a number of “weapons,” but they, at least, turned out to be fake.